1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographing apparatus for monitoring those who commit a wrongful act against transaction processing units such as an automated-teller machine (ATM), unattended transaction terminal, shopping terminal, vending machine, POS terminal (including a cash register), and so forth, and a monitoring system using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Crimes such as drawing cash out of another person""s account, shopping in the name of another person, and so forth have been committed by use of a stolen cash card or credit card. Financial institutions and distribution organizations have coped with these crimes by mounting a photographing apparatus equipped with a camera inside or in the upper part of transaction processing units, or by attaching the photographing apparatus in the corner of the ceiling of rooms where the transaction processing units are installed so as to be able to photograph the face and body of users of the transaction processing units.
However, with conventional photographing apparatuses, a camera is required for the face of the users, and every part (referred to hereinafter as sites to be photographed) of the body of the users, to be photographed, respectively, thereby resulting in a high cost, and at the same time, an increase in size. Further, as the face and body of the users are captured in respective image frames, an increase in image data to that extent has resulted.
Furthermore, with the conventional photographing apparatuses, for monitoring from a remote location actions of users of a transaction processing unit by photographing the face and body of the users of the transaction processing unit, and displaying images thereof at the remote location, there is the need of installing a monitor for the face to display an image of the face and a monitor for the body to display an image of the body, respectively, or displaying on a single monitor the image of the face, combined with the image of the body. In the case of installing a monitor for the face and a monitor for the body, respectively, two monitors are required, leading to a high cost. Then, in the case of displaying on a single monitor the image of the face, combined into one with the image of the body, a image processing unit is required, whereby a predetermined processing is applied to image data for the face and the body, respectively, again leading to a high cost.
In addition, with the conventional photographing apparatuses, a field of view of the camera thereof is narrow, and consequently, principal parts of the users of the transaction processing unit can at times come into a blind spot. In such a case, even if the transaction processing unit is wrongfully utilized, it becomes impossible to photograph actions of the users in a region within reach of their hands, or actions of the users making access to a transaction slot (card slot, bankbook slot, bank note slot, coin slot, and so forth), and so on, thus rendering it difficult to substantiate that the transaction processing unit has been wrongfully utilized. In particular, there has recently been an increase in such crimes as forging a card rather than stealing a card, drawing cash out of another person""s account, shopping in the name of another person, and so forth with the use of the forged card. In this case, since the genuine owner of the card will not notice for some time that a crime has occurred, the crime is often discovered later on. As a result, with the elapse of time after the crime was committed, it becomes difficult at times to verify that the transaction processing unit was wrongfully utilized. Also, there has recently been an increase in such crimes as shopping at a vending machine with the use of forged coins, thereby wrongfully acquiring goods and change. In this case as well, since it is impossible to determine who used the forged coins, it is difficult to verify that the transaction processing unit was wrongfully utilized. Furthermore, there have occurred such crimes as stealing information contained in another person""s card by attaching illegal equipment to a POS terminal (including a cash register). In this case as well, since it is impossible to determine who attached the illegal equipment thereto or who operated the transaction processing unit, it is difficult to verify that the transaction processing unit was wrongfully utilized. Thus, the conventional photographing apparatuses have been unable to properly deal with the crimes described above.
The invention has been developed to solve the problems described above, and an object of the invention is to provide a photographing apparatus capable of verifying with ease that a transaction processing unit has been wrongfully utilized, and at the same time, reducing an amount of image data for each case of transaction processing while lowering the cost thereof, and a monitoring system using the photographing apparatus.
To this end, the photographing apparatus according to the invention comprises an image forming element having an image forming face, photographing field angle dividing means for dividing a photographing field angle so as to correspond with a plurality of sites to be photographed, and forming an image of the respective sites to be photographed on the image forming element, and image data generation means for generating image data of the respective sites to be photographed on the basis of output of the image forming element.
Further, the monitoring system according to the invention comprises a transaction processing unit, and a photographing apparatus for photographing a user of the transaction processing unit, wherein the photographing apparatus records in recording means image data of the user photographed so as to correspond with operation of the transaction processing unit in the course of transaction.